More than just a little; in fact a very respectful £660.  On Saturday 21st March Tesco Supermarket at Whaley Bridge challenged the team to raise as much money as it could with a door collection.  The invitation was part of Tesco’s Challenge scheme which invited divisions of St John Ambulance to collect at their stores.  Buxton Mountain Rescue Team, a division of St John since 1975, was pleased to accept the challenge and found the shoppers of Whaley Bridge to be very generous.  In just a few hours over £660 was collected …

A performance by Derby Concert Band at Buxton’s Pavilion Gardens on Saturday 21st March raised over £120 for the rescue team’s funds.  The concert, entitled Music With Altitude, was a mixture of stirring music together with a visual presentation and talk by world renowned mountain adventurer, Nigel Vardy.   Nigel, having lost several fingers through frostbite on one of his expeditions, was keen that mountain rescue should benefit from the event and invited the team to make a collection during the concert.  The team will also benefit from a percentage of the ticket sales …

It is not uncommon for a mountain rescue team to deal with a broken leg but this leg breaker is something totally different.   The Leg Breaker is a cycle challenge organised each year by Leek Cyclist’s Club for really serious riders.   The course is 130 kilometres long with over 3000 metres of ascent but still attracts 300 plus competitors!  

The team had for the past two years helped with staffing drink stations during the race and has provided first aid cover for some of the more remote parts of the course.  In 2008 Buxton Mountain Rescue Team …

Being a team member is a full-time job in your spare time; that was the message delivered by operational team leader, Neil Carruthers, when he reported to the team annual general meeting that 2008 had been the busiest year on record for Buxton.  

Buxton team members had been called-out by the police to a total of 96 incidents.  The full team or the daytime snatch squad had been requested 82 times whilst the search dog members had been involved with a further 14 incidents, some as far away as Pembrokeshire National Park.   …

At its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 12th March, Buxton team Chairman, Ian Hurst, made three presentations to members who have for many years shown particular dedication to the team.  All three members were rewarded with certificates of “Honorary Membership”.

Elaine Weston, who retired from operational membership this year, had also served as First Aid Officer for many years and was credited with having spent 1000,s of hours in preparing and presenting training sessions.  Her certificate citation read, “For devoted and enthusiastic encouragement of others through training and personal development.”  Although Elaine no longer holds the …

One year after publication of the book, “Mountain Rescue: history & development in the Peak District” the authors, Ian Hurst and Roger Bennett, have split the profits with equal donations to Buxton Mountain Rescue Team and to the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation.   

The book was never written with the intention of making a huge profit. It was simply a method of recording the history of local mountain rescue before it was lost for ever.   Many different people contributed material, so the only fair way to pay them back was to donate all the profits to benefit mountain rescue.   …

Lights, camera, WOOF!  Never work with children and animals, is what they say, but team member Dave Mason thinks that’s all wrong.

As a Search and Rescue Dog Association handler Dave thinks working with animals is great – or at least one very special animal, a border collie named Megan.  As reported in an article on this site on 19th Jan, Dave and Megan qualified as a “Full Search Dog” unit after a gruelling three days of tests and assessment at Derwentwater in the Lake District.   This was the culmination of years of training for Dave …

Buxton Mountain Rescue Team has benefited from the joint brain power of six members of the Wednesday Walking Group, who are part of Congleton’s University of the Third Age. 

The Slow Walks And Late Lunches On Wednesdays (SWALLOW) group meets most Wednesdays for a six mile ramble round various parts of Cheshire, Staffordshire or Derbyshire. They entered two teams into the twice yearly quiz night which is open to all parts of the U3A.  The two teams, the Swallows and the Amazons, did battle with twenty-two other teams but it was the Swallows who took the …

Neil Roden, Chairman of the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation, appeared on BBC Two’s Politics Show last Sunday declaring battle against the VAT man.

Mountain rescue teams have to pay Value Added Tax on nearly everything they buy and also contribute even more to the government’s Chancelor in the form of vehicle road fund licences and road fuel duty.   Rescue teams are not trading companies and generally are too small to register for VAT. 

Neil explained that teams are not asking for government hand outs but simply can’t understand why they have to pay tax …

Ian Hurst, Chairman of Buxton Mountain Rescue Team, is to be awarded a “Certificate of Distinguished Service”, the top honour available from the national body, Mountain Rescue England and Wales.

David Allan FRCS, Chairman of M. R. England & Wales, visited the Peak District on Wednesday night and personally delivered the news at the Annual General Meeting of the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation.

The award of a Certificate of Distinguished Service is a rare and prestigious event bestowed at the behest of The President of M. R. England & Wales.  There can be only one recipient …